Sports Ready or now not, it is time to strap in once over again.
Or now not it is been a uniquely painful offseason for the Dallas Cowboys. Even a elephantine six months later, last one year’s playoff meltdown looms large within the psyche of one of many NFL’s most tortured fan bases.
That anguish would steal a whereas to heal on its hang, but it is now not in any admire times as if the organization has helped well-known. Beginning with Jerry Jones’ sick-fated “all-in” feedback, extending to an especially lackluster free agency length and transferring just correct along into three excessive-profile contract negotiations, it is been one frustration after one other at The Important person. Or now not it is sufficient that you shall be succesful to be forgiven for losing tune of it all.
That’s the assign we come in. Because the Cowboys prepare to contact down in California for one other practicing camp on the West Fly, right here are the six ideal storylines expecting them.
6. Who totes the rock?
It shall be a enjoyable nostalgia shuttle to beget Ezekiel Elliott support in a Cowboys uniform, and it is going to be cool to understand him rock the No. 15 from his Ohio Enlighten years.
Beyond that, it is stressful to salvage pondering this Dallas working backs room. It would now not if reality be told feel like a stretch to train the Cowboys are the thinnest on the location for your total league after losing Tony Pollard in free agency. Elliott became once serviceable for a contaminated Fresh England personnel in 2023, but he’s now not the bell cow he became once from 2016 to 2021. Rico Dowdle had some enjoyable flashes in 2023, but he has 117 occupation touches in four years. Equally, dilapidated Royce Freeman is averaging wonderful 52 carries per one year within the equivalent time frame.
The subsequent month is going to be telling for this neighborhood. There could be no must safe a bona fide starter, but the aim wishes to be to hunt out a rotation that works. Who gets the most touches? Who’s the correct third down support? Who has the most immense-play skill? Is there a role for scat support Deuce Vaughn or fullback Hunter Luepke?
Retain an understand on how the touches are divvied up within the preseason. And reckoning on how it all goes, again an understand on other personnel’s camp battles. If the Cowboys produce now not like what they see at some level of practicing camp, it mustn’t be frightful if they turn to the waiver wire or even a replace to bump their efficiency on the location.
5. What can Trey Lance be?
Among the appealing guys on the Cowboys’ roster is now not in any admire times if reality be told even anticipated to play this one year. But, starter or now not, the personnel’s dangerous future at quarterback throws an awfully large highlight onto Lance.
Or now not it is been simply about a one year since Dallas sent a fourth-spherical pick to San Francisco in alternate for Lance, the No. 3 total pick within the 2021 NFL Draft, and that’s also the first accurate survey the general public has had of him. With so well-known time to be taught the plan and survey beneath Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys have to be hoping he appears the allotment of a main draft pick.
There could be capability extra at stake than a hit a replace. If Prescott winds up leaving in 2025, Lance wonderful could moreover be the most plausible likelihood to be the Cowboys’ starter. Certain, he would moreover need a recent contract if that is so — but that’d be a heck of a lot cheaper than the deal that is expecting Prescott’s signature, wherever that shall be.
Or now not it is an appealing daydream, but it is now not in any admire times a dialog rate having except Lance appears the allotment this summer season. Checking out whether or now not they’ve one thing in their younger quarterback wishes to be one of many Cowboys’ high priorities.
4. Will the OL formative years motion work?
Tyler Biadasz became once an unsung warhorse of the Cowboys’ previous three seasons. The dilapidated center appeared in fifty three of the personnel’s 55 video games en path to 37 total wins since 2021. His snap rely for that stretch became once a whopping 3,296 performs. That form of stability and consistency is underrated, although Biadasz hasn’t been an All-Pro caliber center to this level in his occupation.
Tyron Smith is highly well-known the different. Because of the center-broken accidents, Smith’s snap rely for that very same stretch is a substantial decrease 1,856. But when wholesome, as he became once for a form of of 2023, the perennial All-Pro serene appears as if one of many very ideal left tackles in soccer.
How you are feeling about either participant is inappropriate from the Cowboys’ standpoint, as both gamers are gone — taking their 227 blended occupation begins with them.
Their replacements shall be younger, to position it mildly.
Tyler Guyton is the gross vocal level. The Cowboys drafted the Oklahoma standout No. 29 total within the spring, they in most cases’re going to be hoping they had been as lawful about him as they had been about 2022 first-spherical pick Tyler Smith. Guyton, a first rate address in college, is the early favorite to snatch Tyron Smith’s longtime plan on the left aspect.
The guts anxiety is a chunk murkier. The be aware out of Dallas is that the Cowboys are excessive on 2nd-one year center Brock Hoffman, who started one game as a rookie when Biadasz became once injured. Rookie guard Cooper Beebe has the pliability to play center, or even one other 2nd-one year participant in T.J. Bass could moreover beget a thunder within the location fight.
In a supreme world, the younger guys snatch these jobs and produce now not let scoot, prompting all people to train once over again that the Cowboys are masters of the NFL draft. And, to present credit to them, their tune file suggests that is extremely doable.
Things salvage dicey if that would now not play out at practicing camp, despite the incontrovertible reality that. If Guyton’s now not ready at left address, journeyman Chuma Edoga becomes a likely starter — or stranger yet, presumably the Cowboys’ coaching workers debates transferring Tyler Smith support out to left address, the assign he played as a rookie.
Frightening as that sounds, now not decrease than there are alternate choices. The Cowboys produce now not beget a ton of selections at center if their children produce now not pan out.
Or now not it is straight forward to fixate on the flexibility positions, but the Cowboys’ offensive success wonderful could moreover rely on who fills these two vacancies on the offensive line — and how successfully they invent it.
3. How a long way along is Trevon Diggs ?
When he’s wholesome, there are now not many better ballhawks within the NFL than Trevon Diggs. His 11 interceptions in 2021 earned him first-personnel All-Pro honors, and his 17 picks in his first three seasons helped him bag a $97 million contract last summer season.
Destroy grabbed Diggs at a in particular cruel 2nd, because the Cowboys lost him for the season at some level of a Week 3 prepare last September.
One silver lining of such an early damage is that Diggs has had that for a lot longer to work on his restoration. He enters his fifth NFL practicing camp 10 months eradicated from damage, which gives him severely better odds of taking allotment speedily. Time will command how the Cowboys ease him support, as they will reportedly plan him on the physically unable to construct list to birth camp.
But it indubitably shakes out, they’re going to need him support taking part in at an All-Pro level for the fashioned season if their defense is going to again its excessive level of play beneath Mike Zimmer.
2. How a long way will the Dak Prescott negotiations scoot?
What’s left to train about the most pressing contract negotiation within the NFL?
Everybody is aware of the uncover with Prescott and the Cowboys. The eight-one year dilapidated turns 31 subsequent week, wonderful as he’s starting assign the closing one year of his contract. That contract includes a no-designate clause, which manner the Cowboys produce now not beget any capability of conserving him from hitting the free agency market in March 2025.
If Prescott is going to be the Cowboys’ starter previous this season, he wants a recent deal — and he doubtlessly wants it earlier than the season begins, to attach away with the temptation of checking out the birth market.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they’re now not going to be taught the leisure recent within the following month. Everybody is aware of what Prescott is — a Pro Bowl quarterback within the prime of his occupation with a 62% occupation bag share. We moreover know what he’s lacking, which is a deep playoff walk in any of his 5 trips to the postseason.
Nothing that occurs in August is going to replace that. As an different, practicing camp appears love it is going to feature as a form of standoff — an opportunity for Cowboys officials to if reality be told feel out their alternate choices whereas watching Prescott prepare for his ninth NFL season.
It guarantees to be highly dramatic, but it moreover would now not survey at possibility of beget an imprint on this personnel’s file in 2024. All indications are that Prescott shall be readily readily accessible in Oxnard, Calif. — which is why he’s taking the No. 2 plan to the ideal storyline of this one year’s camp.
1. When will CeeDee Lamb train?
Will the Cowboys’ All-Pro receiver even be considered in California any time soon?
Lamb became once willing to eat a $101,000 unprejudiced to present a level at some level of the spring, as he skipped the personnel’s most critical minicamp seeking a contract extension.
Obviously, that extension serene has now not arrived, and the present collective bargaining agreement permits golf equipment to unprejudiced gamers $50,000 for every practicing camp prepare uncared for at some level of a holdout. If Lamb stays away from the personnel this month, he could moreover be looking at losing roughly $850,000.
That serene could moreover be rate it. Justin Jefferson just now not too long within the past signed a $140 million extension, with roughly $89 million of it assured when he signed it. Even a million dollars could moreover be a ticket rate paying if it helps Lamb stable a identical guarantee.
With any luck, he gets it. At the age of wonderful 25, Lamb has established himself as one of many correct receivers in soccer over extra than one years at this level, and the payday would be successfully deserved.
Here is less about whether or now not Lamb is deserving, and extra about how speedily the Cowboys can salvage him into camp. Lamb will once over again be the focus of this Dallas offense in 2024, and it wouldn’t be wonderful for somebody concerned if the correct weapon on the personnel is now not in any admire times if reality be told getting reps until the birth of the fashioned season.
David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports actions and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He beforehand spent 9 seasons covering the Cowboys for the personnel’s first rate web web page online. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Household Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi Enlighten. Be aware him on Twitter at @davidhelman_ .
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